If you're stressed out, burned out, or totally fried, there's a good chance your hair looks the same. Research shows that bad hair days proliferate when you don't get enough of the right vitamins or protein.

Nutrients that help hair can be found in beans, whole grains, eggs, salmon, raw nuts, flax and pumpkin seeds, berries, and dark leafy greens. As a fringe benefit, salmon and greens also provide calcium for your teeth, so you're helping your hair and teeth. Berries are high in cancer-preventing antioxidants, and dark greens also contain lutein, which halts blindness and cataracts. By eating all of these nutritious fruits and vegetables, you'll have hair that looks like it came out of a commercial and you'll feel like you spent a week at a swank health spa.

Ten Super foods for Hair

According to leading hair expert Nicholas Perricone, M.D., author of The Perricone Promise, you can promote thicker, healthier hair by consuming adequate amounts of what he calls the ten super foods for hair.

• Acai berries, which contain powerful antioxidants.

• Allium foods, including onions, garlic, leeks, and shallots, which contain powerful bioflavonoids.

• Barley, which is high in niacin, a nutrient that helps hair growth.

• Wheatgrass, which cleanses hair of toxins and has essential fatty acids that build hair protein.

• Buckwheat, which has more vitamins, flavonoids, and minerals than other grains except barley.

• Hot peppers, which contain capsaicin, a powerful antioxidant.

• Nuts and seeds, which contain essential proteins, phytochemicals, and fatty acids to build healthy tresses and reduce breakage and damage.

• Sprouts, which are packed with nutrients to give your hair body and lift.

• Yogurt and kefir, which promote longevity and health.

• Spirulina and algae, which provide essential fatty acids to build hair protein and cleanse hair of toxins.

Don't expect your hair to perk up right away when you start ingesting these super foods. Hair grows and mends slowly, and your locks will need at least three months to show real improvement, so be patient! Meanwhile, you can jazz up your beauty regimen with daily juicing — an easy way to get all those essential vitamins and minerals. Maintaining a better diet will also help color-treated hair maintain its hue and bounce.

And don't forget to hydrate your hair from the inside out. Drink at least eight glasses of water a day. Water hydrates your body and maintains a healthy moisture balance in your hair, which prevents frizzing, drying, and breakage. Drinking enough water for your hair is especially crucial if you regularly use hair dryers and/or hot rollers, color or bleach your hair, or if your hair is regularly subjected to harsh, drying chemicals, such as chlorine in swimming pools and hot tubs.

Tips for Hair Loss

If you're following a good regimen for your hair but are still losing hair or excessively shedding, or if you have hair that never seems to grow, you may be suffering from a medical condition called alopecia, or medical hair loss.

Alopecia often signals an underlying medical problem, such as an overactive or underactive thyroid gland, chronic stress, malnutrition, crash dieting, hormonal imbalances, anemia, and cancer. If you're losing hair, see a physician to rule out underlying medical causes.

Nutrients that Slow Hair Loss

If your hair loss is because of nutritional deficiencies, you can ward it off by consuming these hair-healthy nutrients and foods.

Vitamin A (found in mangos, oranges, carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash) produces sebum and promotes hair growth. Too little vitamin A causes dry hair, dandruff, and a thick scalp, which eventually causes hair loss.

Vitamin B (found in potatoes, cereals, bananas, chicken, and beef) and in particular folic acid (found in lentils, collard greens, chickpeas, papayas, and asparagus) provides the scalp with oxygen for healthy hair growth.

Silica (found in oats, millet, barley, whole wheat, and algae) is the most important trace mineral for healthy hair growth because your hair is made of silica. Getting enough silica also helps your body use several other essential nutrients, including boron, copper, manganese, fluorine, phosphorous, zinc, and strontium.

Iodine (found in kelp, yogurt, milk, eggs, strawberries, and mozzarella cheese) helps prevent hair loss, although taking too much iodine in supplements may actually cause hair loss.